Will Kanye West’s heartfelt journey make you cry?

Everyone has had their heart broken, but only few can put a melody to it like Kanye West

Album: 808s & Heartbreak (Limited Edition) by Kanye West
For: Rs 395
Available at all leading music stores
Rating: 4/5

Everyone has had their heart broken, but only few can put a melody to it like Kanye West. The cover of his fourth studio album sees a deflated heart-shaped balloon placed against a bare, lacklustre blue background. Flip inside and you'll find the rapper kissing his late mother on her cheek, and on the reverse a dejected West standing still in a plaid suit (of course not without a pair of designer sunglasses) with a broken heart in his pocket a visual summary to describe 808s and Heartbreak.

West's busta-rapping takes a breather as his soppy saga of losing his mother recently and a broken engagement get a fresh tune, just when you thought you had heard his self-indulgent side enough. What he isn't afraid to call pop-art, a name borrowed from the latest art medium, feature on tracks Paranoid, Street Lights and Coldest Winter that see a retro beat mixed with synth keyboards and lyrics sung with a slow hum and drawl.

The album is a slick electro mix of synthesised, groovy sounds and heartfelt lyrics. The opening track Say You Will kickstarts without much of a prelude and engages you with a repetitive and emotional (but catchy) beat, and exposes a range of West's vocal abilities, which aren't bad at all for the new sound that he is dabbling with.
Welcome to Heartbreak (feat Kid Cudi) opens with beautiful play of keyboards, and fuses West's rapping with a multi-layered OST-type background score: A perfect fit for the last and decisive 30 minutes of an urban love story that must involve a chase oh-so! The already-hit single Love Lockdown allows you to continue with this imagination, Heartless plays up an Akon-type rap and crying-out-loud variety of lyrics, and in-between these two, you find Amazing (feat Young Jeezy), a rap-meets-techno marriage. The boom-boom bass on Love Lockdown returns on Robocop, that is an unusual medley of upbeat violins, keyboards, siren-type city sounds and "cute" vocals.

808s and Heartbreak may be a result of having his heart broken, but the music is still as pleasant and slightly addictive too.